We were going on hiatus until September, but alas, it’s going to be much longer than that.

To all the authors we published — thank you! We were very happy to contribute a small part to your career, and wish you all the best with your creative endeavors in the future.

This site will remain live as an online archive until at least June 2009, continuing to display all these fine stories, and then after that *poof* it will disappear.

Our sister site, Quantum Kiss, will continue to publish.

Thank you everyone! Farewell.

Jerry J. Davis

I just wanted to let everyone know I’m leaving Dark Energy SF.

It’s been fun!  I learned a lot from working on this publication, and I want to publically thank Jerry and Bill for letting me help.

I would also like to thank all the authors for submitting.

Love to you all!

Wendy

Dark Energy SF will be closing for submission for the time period between May 1st through September 1st, 2008.  All stories currently in the queue will be read.

All stories submitted between May 1st and September 1st 2008 will be deleted unread.

We are behind in our reading, but are working to catch up.

It’s funny how things work.

Random action does not create uniform results.  I’m seeing that in our slush pile.  After a long drought of stories that just don’t work for us, we got a big lump of stories all at once that are really intriguing, and which I’m passing on to the senior editors.

Too bad we can’t afford to buy all of them.  If only more people would click on our ads, we would be able to.  :-(  Alas, the Yahoo advertising scheme doesn’t seem to be working for us.

“After a prolific and esteemed career, Sir Arthur has passed away in Sri Lanka.”

Clarke’s books were the first real SF I read.

This is a sad day for our genre.

- Jerry

I am honored to be one of the guest writers / publishers at ConDFW 2008 this weekend.  Anyone showing up can find me on the following panels:

Saturday 10 am    Panel Room 2 (Rose/Magnolia)
Does Fantasy Mean Paranormal?
Hosted by Jerry J. Davis, Lillian Stewart Carl, Lee Killough and Nina Romberg.

Industry Pros discuss the difference between the genres of fantasy and paranormal fiction.  Are these just synonyms or are there real differences?    How does understanding the difference help you to get published?

Saturday 11 am    Panel Room 4 (Pecan)
Starting Your Own Publishing Company
Hosted by Jerry Davis, Glenn Yeffeth, and Thomas W. Knowles.

Sure … sure … everybody wants to be the writer.   But writers never get anything in print without the unsung hero of the industry – the publisher.    Industry pros discuss the career of publishing, what it takes to enter this field and what it takes to succeed.

Saturday 12 pm    Reading Room (Live Oak)
The author will be reading.

Saturday 1 pm        Panel Room 2 (Rose/Magnolia)
The Haunted City:  Urban Fantasy Today
Hosted by Rachel Caine, Jerry J. Davis, Carole Nelson Douglas, Brad Sinor, and Lee Killough

Industry pros discuss the urban fantasy genre.   What makes this style essential, vital, beautiful and what needs to be paved over?    And is there any room left in this haunted city?

Sunday 12 pm        Panel Room 2 (Rose/Magnolia)    
Published in the Periodicals: The Sci-Fi/Fantasy Magazine Market
Hosted by Lou Antonelli, Jerry J. Davis, Linda Donahue, Rhonda Eudaly and J.M. McDermott

Industry pros discuss the getting published in magazines.    Who is really looking?   What are the really exciting markets?   And what can you do to maximize your chances of escaping from the slush pile?

[Bill is going to be there too!]

“The belief in an external world independent of the perceiving subject is the basis of all natural science. Since, however, sense perception only gives information of this external world or of “physical reality” indirectly, we can only grasp the latter by speculative means. It follows from this that our notions of physical reality can never be final. We must always be ready to change these notions - that is to say, the axiomatic basis of physics - in order to do justice to perceived facts in the most perfect way logically.”

-Albert Einstein

While I’m on the subject of Internet sites I wish I’d discovered earlier, here’s one that I also love:

SF Gospel: Explorations of religion in science fiction and popular culture

While some think that science fiction and religion shalt not mix, I completely disagree. Science fiction and fantasy is the perfect place to explore religious themes, especially as the genre as a whole is one of ideas and “what if’s” … and so it’s a safe place to ask questions such as, “What if, instead of eating the flesh of Christ, Christ instead ate your flesh?”

(Just in case anyone is wondering, that is a Philip K. Dick reference.)

Hello, my name is Jerry J. Davis, and I am a Dickhead.

In fact, not only am I a Dickhead, but I’m proud of it.

I’m such a Dickhead, in fact, that I mourn the idea it took me such a long time to discover this absolutely wonderful blog: http://totaldickhead.blogspot.com/

I have been a major fan of Philip K. Dick’s writings since I first stumbled upon A Scanner Darkly way back in the days when old Phil was still alive. Over the years I had managed to collect a copy of every single one of his books, some of them signed, and they saved my buttocks during the DotCom Crash when I had to unload them on eBay to save my house from foreclosure.

I miss the books, yes, but I’m heartened by the idea that they’re all back in print and not so hard to get anymore.

David Gill’s Total Dick-Head blog, as I am equally heartened to discover, is a great source of up-to-the-moment Philip K. Dick news, etc. I had never even thought to look for something like this.

And some wonder why mass media is so paranoid about, and hostile toward, the blogosphere? It gives readers what they want, instead of what mass media wants to give them.

Every once in a while I stumble upon a great Internet site I wish I’d known about earlier.

This is one of them: http://www.novelandshortstory.com/blog/

It seems the Writer’s Market of yore is reinventing itself online, and this is part of it. I remember in the pre-Internet days I used to live and breathe the Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market books, shelling out good money for them every year. It was the fiction market’s bible.

When the Writer’s Market put itself online and then wanted to charge for access, I signed up for a while but quickly found I could get all the market listings I wanted for free from places such as Spicy Green Iguana (which now seems to be stagnating) and (my personal favorite) Ralan.com.

This blog, however, brings back the old warm-and-fuzzies from my days of dog-earing the old fiction bible, and has a great “Friday Feast” market news post that keeps you up to date on who’s buying and who’s gone on hiatus, etc.